Cut off by one of our own - stay alert...
 

As we were headed home Sunday evening, I spotted a good-sized Fountain crossing well in front of us from the right. We both headed upriver on the same course, he towards the left side of the river, and me about 500' behind him, and 50' to his right. We were running just slightly faster, so we were closing on him. At 50' behind him, I start leaving more room between us side-to-side, just in case....

Sure enough, without looking, he hooks a crisp right turn directly into my path. I hook a sharper right turn, but he still hasn't seen me, and now he's cutting even harder. I chop the throttles, wait a few seconds and then hook an extreme left to cross about 30' behind him. I have to admit that I didn't bother looking back to see if he offered any apology.

As much as we b!tch about the behavior of cruisers, saleboters, fishermen, etc., sometimes "we" are just as guilty as anyone. I bear no grudge to this boater, just wish that everyone would work harder to pay attention.

Let's be careful out there...

cut off by one of our own !
 

That happened to me when I was about 7 days old,and I had no say in the matter !:evilb::evilb::evilb:

No doubt ya have to be careful out there. Anyone can have a brain fart. I'm always a bit nervous when overtaking someone who has not looked back and acknowledged that i'm there. Running out here on the Colorado river does not give you much room to maneuver, and add in all the sand bars, it gets real narrow in places. Like has been said many times, keep your head on a swivel.... and be safe.



Darrell.

Let me understand the situation.... you both were running at speed and you approached to within 50' behind and off to his right some distance and you "expected" him to know you were there and yield to you?

Hate to be "that guy", but you were in the wrong in my opinion. Any boat ahead of you has the right of way. If I looked over my shoulder, and I always do when attempting a turn, I would have been suprised as hell that you were that close to me.

Let's ALL be safe out there!!!

The first rule of boating is NEVER make a turn without looking first. Fountain wrong. Chuck right. Period, full stop, end of conversation.

Passing on his right?

Hey Chuck . . . . . . did you do one short audible blast on the horn while overtaking? One for stbd or two for port while passing ya know . . . . . course doing a "crazy Ivan" aint much better :D

Hate to say it Chuck but its your obligation to first make sure the other vessel knows your there and your intention before you proceed. Especially with performance boats, i think we may tend to get complacent in the thought that no one comes up on us.

Overtaking Another Vessel It’s legal to overtake another boat by passing either to port or to starboard. The Collision Regulations state that a vessel intending to overtake another on its starboard side should sound one blast on the horn. The vessel to be overtaken, after ensuring that the starboard side is clear, should respond with a single blast indicating that overtaking boat should proceed. Where the intention is to pass to port, the overtaking vessel should sound two blasts on the horn indicating their intention. The vessel to be overtaken, after ensuring that the port side is clear, should respond with two blasts indicating that the overtaking vessel should proceed.

I always hit the can air when I'm coming up on someone that does not know I am there.

He was obvious not going to look behind him, something every boater should do. If he had seen you, it was his duty as the Stand On vessel to continue straight, making no exaggerated moves. Horns do work, depending on the noise in the cockpit.

You say you closed in on him from 500' to 50', no idea how much time had transpired, but that sure is closing. Personally, I would have back off, not knowing what to expect. When he hooked a "crisp turn right", I surely would have backed off, and turned left. Turning right would put you closer to a collision course, since he was ahead of you? (Hard to picture without more details). Lots of dangerous wrongs there.

I think the real question here is how did the Formula catch up to a Fountain.:party-smiley-004: